Home | Information | Religious

Back to Index

Every religious tradition, philosophy and world-view claims to have the truth. In almost every case, in fact, even if it isn't stated overtly, the claim of every school of thought is that they alone are the sole possessor of the absolute and perfect truth and that, by implication, every other school of thought is wrong in their own claims to knowing truth. Rather than merely being yet one more dogmatic voice in the deafening chorus of claimants to truth, the Vedic path asks all intelligent seekers to take a step back from such fanatical assertions, and to ask the following fundamental question: By what means do you claim to even know what you claim to know? In other words, anyone can make the statement that, "I know that а X is true!" But the real question is this: How do you know that а X is true? What are the means by which you derived such knowledge, and how can you prove that this is a valid means for acquiring such knowledge? Such questions about the validity of means of knowing fall under the realm of epistemology in philosophy. We'll now very briefly examine Vaidik epistemology.

Three Necessary Factors of Knowing
In general, there are three factors that need to be present for any successful attempt to know something. These factors are
(1) the person who seeks to know,(2) the object that the person seeks to know, and (3) the medium, or means, through which the seeker obtains the object of knowledge. For example: (1) I am the seeker of knowledge; (2) the object that I seek to know is the following: "Is there a glass of water on the table in front of me?"; and (3) the medium  that I use to answer this question is my eyes. So, again, to know something, there must be:
The knower
The object of knowledge (what we want to know), and
The proper medium through which we know

Three Ways of Knowing the Truth
Going deeper now, there are also three primary mediums by which we know anything at all (what are called epistemic mechanisms). These are: (1) Pratyaksh - Empiricism, (2) Anumaan - Logical Inference or guessing by logic, and (3) Shabd - Transcendent Word. (Remember? "In the beginning there was word and the word was God") Each of these specific mediums, in turn, has a corresponding object of knowledge that is exclusive to it and to it alone.

Pratyaksh - means very specifically deriving knowledge through the medium of the senses. Anything that we can know by seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or feeling falls under this means of knowing. The basic scientific method is a perfect example of this form of sensory knowledge. Pratyaksh, or Empiricism, is only able to give us knowledge that applies to the senses, and nothing more.

Anumaan - means acquiring knowledge through purely inferential, mathematical, and logical means. Anumaan means reasoning. The realms of mathematics and logic are perfect examples of Anumaan means of acquiring knowledge. Similarly, Anumaan only applies to those facets of knowledge that are intellectual in nature. If we want to know the answer to the question, "Can Hal's brother be a married bachelor?", we don't need to know Hal's brother to know the answer to this question; we know the answer through the inherent reasoning mechanism of our intellect. Hal's brother cannot be both married and a bachelor since the two states are mutually exclusive, and to state that he is both is a logical absurdity. Through your intellect alone, you already know what the answer to this question has to be!

Shabd - Neither empiricism, nor logic alone are capable of revealing truths that are transcendent and spiritual in nature, however, because they are tools that only apply to their respective objects of knowledge - the perceptual, material objects of the world; and the conceptual, intellectual objects of reasoning, respectively. The realm of spirit (God, gods, Truth, soul, higher metaphysics, etc.), being trans-empirical and trans-intellectual, cannot be known by such insufficient tools. To use the senses or the intellect alone to know transcendent truth is akin to using a sledgehammer to perform brain surgery; it's just the wrong tool. Since we cannot know the Transcendent through the non-transcendent means of Pratyaksh or Anumaan, then what recourse are we left with?

Shabd, or Transcendent Word, or "Logos in Greek", is the exclusive means by which transcendent truths are revealed. This is the case because Shabd, being of the nature of the spiritual, corresponds in essence with the spiritual nature of transcendent truths. It is only via consciousness that we can know consciousness. It is only via spirit that we can know Spirit. It is only through Shabd that we can know transcendent truths. Shabd represents the essential nature of spiritual realities as they exist in the form of trans-empirical vibration frequency (thus Word, Logos, etc). Truth, being an eternal and living reality, can be accessed by human beings who have purified themselves, and who have absorbed their subjective consciousness in the Absolute supreme subjective consciousness (God), to such a degree that qualitative separation between themselves and God has ceased to exist. At this point, the medium between knower and object of knowledge (God) has evaporated. Thus, Shabd is the only means of knowing in which we transcend even the use of a medium. In such a state of oneness with the Divine, the sage now has the ability to reveal the transcendent truth of the Divine for all the world to know. Thus, Ved, or perfect scriptural authority comes into being as a result of such direct, non-mediated insight into the nature of the Divine on the part of the sage. Word, as eternal transcendent reality, becomes "the Word" as written scripture.

Accessing the Truth Today
For those of us who are still progressing toward final liberation, and have not become enlightened just yet, the system of Shaastra / Aachaarya / Vichaar provides the direct way in which we can access Truth, and by which we can know if any particular truth-claim or practice is actually in keeping with Truth and Dharm.

To access truth today, we must use all the above three means. We must undergo a deep study of Shaastra, the revealed Vaidik scriptures, such as the Upanishad, the Bhagvad Geetaa, Yog Sootra, Naarad Bhakti Sutras, etc. We also need to seek out a true and authentic Guru, or spiritual teacher, in the form of a living Aachaarya who is perfectly practicing and representing the Vedic tradition in an unaltered and traditional manner. Finally, we need to use our own discriminative reasoning abilities to discern whether what we are reading and hearing makes good sense to both our mind and heart.

Truth, including the very highest of spiritual and philosophical truths, can be known to us with ever-increasing depth and clarity. We can know truth, both in theory, as well as through direct experiential insight, by employing the Vedic tools of Yoga, meditation, all under the capable guidance of the Vedic scriptures, the authentic Guru, and the power of our own sincerity and direct insight into the nature of the Absolute. This is the Vaidik way of knowing.

Home | Information | Religious

Back to Index